Broadly, as pointed out in application, U.S. Ser. No. 503,747, filed Sept. 6, 1974, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,446, and owned in common with the instant application, it has been known that by using bi-fold doors, the ends of decked automobile transport rail cars can be closed. There has been a problem, however, that when the cars are opened, the doors can get outside the clearance diagram and be easily damaged. Moreover, the doors should be able to be opened when the cars are coupled for access to the interior of the rail car and the lading. Also, when the operator has delivered an automobile to an upper deck, he must be able to reach a ladder; therefore, he must be able to get around the folded and stored door panels. After the car is loaded, the door must be operable from the ground; and, of course, the door must not jam when it is going into or out of the storage position.
The rail car of the present invention, with its novel door assemblies and door arrangements, can solve all of these problems as well as provide a positive lock of the doors in both the closed condition and the folded back and stored condition. This is made possible by the use of three panels, which are pivoted on their marginal edges for swinging relative to each other. Two sets of the three panels are used to close and lock the opening. The panels fold back upon themselves on hinges along their edges and are pivotally mounted adjacent to the outer sides of the opening on double pivoted crank neans which permit them each to move as a folded three-panel unit into the interior of the car to the stored position. The mechanism for accomplishing these desirable ends will be described in the Brief Description of the Invention to follow.